Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Lee Kaplan,Rashid Khalidi, Land Confiscation, ...

1) This is an article about Lee Kaplan, the fellow whomisquoted me for an article entitled "Scholars forTerror" on www.frontpagemag.com after the Middle EastStudies Association (MESA) Conference in San Franciscolast November:

Santa Cruz Community Television is offering up morethan the usual community dish. Recently, Club Cruz, alocally produced television show, has been used as aplatform for virtual infomercials for an extremistgroup with a record of harassing peace advocates.

The show, produced by Santa Cruz resident BeckyJohnson, has featured on several occasions a man namedLee Kaplan, self-proclaimed founder anddirector of the extreme Zionist group, Dafka. Duringthe episodes, Kaplan dominated the half-hour showswith inaccuracies about the Palestinian peacemovement, negative stereotypes about Arabs andIslam, and potentially slanderous statements aboutwidely respected groups such as Santa Cruz's ResourceCenter for Nonviolence and Berkely's MidEastChildren's Alliance and individuals involved withthem. Intermittently throughout the show, addresses ofKaplan's websites appeared across the screen andKaplan invited viewers to visit the websites; he alsopromoted a book that was for sale on one of thewebsites. Each episode also featured a disgruntledArab guest who shared negative opinions aboutPalestinians and Arabs from a presumed "insider's"perspective. (One questions the authenticity of suchguests, however, since Kaplan brags on his websiteabout disguising himself and passing himself off as anArab at various peaceful gatherings.)

Ron Holman, Programming Director at CommunityTelevision, said that even though some people maydisagree with statements Kaplan makes, he is ableto appear on their channels via their rules which setup the community stations as resource centers for thepublic as opposed to a television network model.Holman noted that an individual's speech could belimited if he was inciting violence.

Though Kaplan didn't directly call for violence in theepisodes, a little fact checking showed that groups heis associated with have been busy hijacking andillegally intruding on peaceful meetings, harassingpeace activists and making at least one death threat.

- October 5, 2003. After participating in a debateat UC Berkeley on Middle East relations, activistAllison Weir received a death threat from anindividual identifying himself with Dafka.

In his website, http://www.dafka.org, Kaplan describeshimself as chief editor, "investigative journalist,news bureau head, businessman and political activist."In other media, however, he is listed withother titles, including "Contributing Editor" forDavid Horowitz's http://www.frontpagemag.comwebsite and West Coast Coordinator" of Students forAcademic Freedom. A post by someone identifyinghimself as Lee Kaplan on santacruzindymedia.org stated"I do make a living doing research about theMiddle East and am a professional journalist. Peopledo drop a dime to read me....I have appearedinternationally on radio as a commentator." However,an extensive and exhaustive search yielded noinformation that could confirm Kaplan's location,background, education, research and type of business.In addition, there no evidence was found that he hadbeen published in print, as he insinuated.

Kaplan appears to be involved in a network ofpro-militancy, pro-Israeli international publicrelations agents who advocate, among other things,for Israel to seize all lands held 2000 years ago andmandatory military or civil service for all residentsof Israel . He's also busy generating propaganda for aconsortium of conservative websites with the aim ofdiscrediting peace groups, activists, librarians andacademics; recruiting college students in the Bay Areaand Santa Cruz for his anti-PalestinianPeace Movement and academic censorship groups; andshaping U.S. policy on education through SAF and itsassociated groups.

What Does All of This Mean?

On a website found in Dafka's Links section, BernardShapiro, head of the "Freeman Center for StrategicStudies," describes a scheme for a worldwide publicrelations campaign with the ultimate aim of protectingthe over six billion dollars Israel annually receivesfrom the United States.

"I think it is time to take a second look at myconcept but expand it to include radio, magazines,cable television (cable will accept this typeof commercial) and newspapers. The ads should rangefrom the very soft evocative travel type to some hardhitting but subtle political messages. Pretend thatIsrael is a corporation with a vast market in theUnited States. Receipts from that market top $6Billion Dollars (including US economic and militaryaid, UJA, Israel Bonds, JNF, plus all the othercampaigns from Yeshivas to the Technion). What wouldyou spend to protect a market of that magnitude? Onehalf of one percent would equal $30 million. You canrun for president with thirty million dollars. In awild fantasy, lets say we have that much money. Andlet's say we hire a talented creative ad man todevelop a multi-faceted, multi-media, and multi-yearcampaign to win the hearts and minds of the Americanpeople."

Kaplan is a regular contributor to the Freemanwebsite.

Like the "frontpagemag" operation, Students forAcademic Freedom is one of several organizations underthe leadership umbrella of David Horowitz SAFdoesn't actually promote "freedom" as much asencouraging students to turn in their teachers forsaying things they don't like or giving them gradesthey don't want. If this seems eerily similar toapproaches used by fascist campaigns throughout theworld, that's because it is. This website includesorganizing tools, blank complaint forms for studentsto pass out and an "Academic Bill of Rights," whichamounts to a plan for academic censorship. It also hasa "National and State Legislation" section (on theleft scroll-down menu) and files on teachersnationwide they deem to be "too liberal." The homepageeven includes an insult aimed the targetaudience --- a graphic of the "hear-no-evil,see-no-evil, speak-no-evil" monkeys, traditionally arepresentation of people who want to ignore reality.

Kaplan has not been content to simply recruit formembers in our community; he has also used hisplatform to attack local politicians and activists whoadvocate for peace. Scott Kennedy, outgoing Santa Cruzmayor who signed the trailblazing City of Santa Cruz'sproclamation against the Iraq War, is one personKaplan targeted for attacks on his website.Referring to the Resource Center for Nonviolence andKennedy, Kaplan writes,

"..the ultimate in gall is that Scott likes toinvoke the teachings of non-violence and tolerance ofMartin Luther King. Would that Dr. King was stillalive, he'd probably abandon non-violence for a momentand chuck ol' Scott upside the head. ....It is hightime the Santa Cruz community recognize the hypocrisyof a center that is really a mouthpiece for Arabanti-Semitism and violence against Jews in theMiddle East. Scott is an elected City Councilmanthere. When his term is up, I'm sure the majority ofpeople who reside in Santa Cruz will turn him out.Perhaps this commentary can inform enough of them todo so."

With this veiled threat by Kaplan, one is left towonder whether or not his remarks about Kennedy hadany influence on his recent defeat in the City Councilrace.

The Dafka website, which roughly translated means, "Inyour face!" in Hebrew, has an editorial voice muchlike Kaplan's and Horowitz's other projects. Theyvociferously attack any organization or individualthat dares question the United States' and Israel'spolicies. Kaplan and Horowitz prefer to use semanticattacks against those they seek to silence withmeaningless phrases meant to squelch all forms ofdiscussion. An example of such a phrase is "stand withIsrael." Although the phrase conjures up a strongimages of loyalty, what does it really mean? Itinsinuates, much like the phrase "support our troops,"that if someone doesn't go along with what the authoris advocating, then he somehow does not "stand withIsrael," or does not "support our troops." Wheneversomeone challenges something Kaplan or Horowitz says,their stock reply is "Anti-Semitism!" This couldn't bemore ridiculous since they save their most viciousattacks for other Jews involved in the peace processand for Arabs, who are also by definition a Semiticpeople.

Lee Kaplan, like anyone else, has his right to freespeech. What seems to be less clear, especially in theway Community Television is run, is how people areaccountable for what they broadcast. As itstands now, only a producer can allow people access topast episodes of Club Cruz. One has to question ifthat makes an entity responsible for the content oftheir broadcasts, especially when, in the case offormer mayor Scott Kennedy, Club Cruz broadcasts occurduring City Council meetings.

Clearly, Lee Kaplan and his associates have an agenda:attack and discredit any entity that might lead to aslowing of money flowing into Israel. Judging by theirslick websites and the many public relations expertsemployed, it is also a well-funded one. When communitybudgets are being slashed and local resources aredrying up, how fair is it to allow a non-Santa CruzCounty resident to broadcast his infomercials for freeat the community's expense? Under the currentstructure of Community T.V., Becky Johnson, producerof Club Cruz, is the only person accountable to thepublic for the content of the show. She is listedunder Dafka's website as a member and UCSC coordinatorfor Dafka; her email is listed asbecky_johnson@sbcglobal.net. An alternative emailaddress she listed on the Santa Cruz Indymedia site isbecky_johnson222@hotmail.com.

In many of the websites associated with Kaplan,supporters are urged to inundate public officials,regulatory agencies and the media with their messages.Perhaps all those people Kaplan has been attackingreally do have something to learn from him.

2) Below is the letter ATFP sent Chancellor Joel Kleinof New York's Department of Education, concerningthe decision to bar Columbia University ProfessorRashid Khalidi from conducting any further teachertraining sessions on Middle Eastern culture andpolitics.

The barring of Professor Khalidi followed an articlein the New York Sun on Professor Khalidi's "criticismof Israel":

On behalf of the board of directors of the AmericanTask Force on Palestine (ATFP), I would like toexpress our concern at the barring of Professor RashidKhalidi from conducting training programs forsecondary-school teachers.

Professor Khalidi is a respected and renowned scholarand author who is an acknowledged authority on MiddleEast history. He is widely recognized as such in theacademic community, and has earned accolades ofprominent national figures as well as members of allcommunities beyond academia, including theJewish-American one. He has clear views on moralityand justice and always expresses his views withclarity, precision and in a scholarly fashion. Theviews or criticisms he expresses are well within theparameters of scholarly discourse. Professor Khalidiis not only a renowned scholar, but is also arespected leader in the Arab-American community whohas been a strong and leading advocate of a negotiatedpeace in the Middle East that addresses the nationalrights of both Israelis and Palestinians to live insecurity and peace.

To have those who disagree with his views succeed indenying the public access to these views, flies in theface of all principles on which this great country isbuilt and under which it has prospered and grown asthe world leader in free thought, expression anddebate. Simply put, the decision to bar him placesshackles on the free market of ideas and is a greatdisservice to the educational system.

I urge you to seriously consider the ramifications ofthe decision not only on the teachers who would havebenefited from this training, but also on the Americanstandard of free thought and expression. Academicswhose works open up controversy and discussion havehistorically added to critical thought and in thefinal analysis, the public should be the final judgeof the merit of their ideas.

Professor Khalidi deserves no less than this and as aresult I strongly urge that he be reinstated as partof the teacher-training program on Middle Easternculture and politics.

Sincerely,

Ziad Asali, MD President

Cc: Lee Bollinger, Columbia University President

3) Here is an example of the sorts of issues peopleare fighting for which draw the ire of Lee Kaplan andthose who have been attacking Rashid Khalidi (Excusethe late posting, but I'm trolling stuff I missed inthe past couple of months):

Israelis use barrier and 55-year-old law to quietlyseize Palestinians' land

Chris McGreal in BethlehemMonday January 31, 2005The Guardian

The Israeli government has quietly seized thousands ofacres of Palestinian-owned land in and around eastJerusalem after a secret cabinet decision to use a55-year-old law against Arabs separated from farms andorchards by the vast "security barrier".Most of the hundreds of Palestinian families whoseland has been confiscated without compensation havenot been formally notified that their property hasbeen transferred to the Israeli state. But plans havealready been drawn up to expand Jewish settlements onto some of the expropriated territory.

The move has drawn stinging criticism from thePalestinian leadership and some Israelis, who call it"legalised theft" and say it is evidence that the vaststeel and concrete barrier under construction throughthe West Bank and Jerusalem is less for security thana move to expand Israel's borders.

"The government is walling in east Jerusalem for thefirst time in six centuries," said Daniel Seidemann,an Israeli lawyer fighting the seizures on behalf ofseveral Palestinian families.

"It is turning the eminently reversible step of abarrier into an irreversible step by buildingimmovable homes. It is a move to assert aggressiveIsraeli sovereignty over east Jerusalem."

Palestinian officials have warned that if the strategyis not reversed it could prove an insurmountableobstacle to a final peace agreement with Israel. ThePalestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of anindependent state.

The cabinet secretly decided to seize the land in Julylast year using a law passed in 1950 allowing thestate to confiscate property abandoned by Arabs whofled to neighbouring countries during Israel'sindependence war.

Among those who have lost their land in the recentseizures is Johnny Atik. His front room, in theBethlehem house he has lived in for 55 years, looks onto the three hectares (eight acres) of olive grovesfrom which he is now officially deemed absent afterIsrael built the "security fence" between his home andhis orchard.

"What is the law of absentees when we are here beforeyour eyes? We are not absent. The law is that anyIsraeli with an American or European passport who goesto live outside Israel is not considered absent. Butme, who lives here, is called absent," he said.

Boundaries

Immediately after occupying east Jerusalem in 1967,Israel redrew the city's boundaries to run deep intothe West Bank. Swaths of land that had fallen withinthe municipality of Arab towns such as Bethlehem -including Mr Atik's - were suddenly defined as part of"greater Jerusalem" and therefore within the bordersof the Jewish state. But the landowners wereclassified as residents of the occupied territoriesand therefore outside the country.

However, successive Israeli governments decided not toapply the absentee property law to Jerusalem becausemany Arabs who owned land within the area claimed byIsrael lived only a short distance away in other partsof the West Bank.

But over the past two years, the invisible cityboundary that Mr Atik walked across to reach his landeach day was transformed into a border marked out inconcrete and steel.

In July, Mr Sharon's government decided to reverse theabsentee law policy on east Jerusalem, but thecabinet's decision has only now become public afterthe army told lawyers for some affected Palestinians.The army had promised Mr Atik a permit to crossthrough a military checkpoint to get to his olivetrees, but his lawyer, Mr Seidemann, spent a yeartrying to get the pass out of the military.

"Eventually, I was told that the reason Johnny Atikcouldn't go to his land was that it was no longer his,it belonged to the government," he said.

Another Bethlehem resident, Anton Salman, has lostabout 40 acres. "It began in 1996 with a small roadfor the checkpoint. Then there is a bigger road, andthen a fence. And then you lose your land. It's alldone in the name of security but this is no way tobring peace," he said.

Across the valley from Mr Atik's land is the Jewishsettlement of Har Homa. The clank of heavy machinery,the scaffolding crisscrossing the front of half-builtflats, the cranes towering over the site all testifyto the rapid expansion of the settlement. The latestJerusalem municipal plan earmarks land for Har Homa'sexpansion as far as Mr Atik's land.

Expansion

The West Bank town of Beit Jala, near the Jewishsettlement of Gilo, asked the Israeli government toroute the barrier so that residents could still reachtheir land without passing through a checkpoint. Theauthorities refused and the army now says thateverything on the Jerusalem side of the barrier -about 1,000 acres, which provide an income for 200families - has been seized.

Some of the land is already being levelled inpreparation for construction linked to a nearby Jewishsettlement.

The village of Walaja, which straddles the greaterJerusalem border, is losing about 2,500 acres. AnIsraeli development firm already claims to have boughtpart of the land to build new homes for Jewishsettlers.

The state has also appropriated a once thriving hotel,the Cliff, on the edge of east Jerusalem even thoughthe owners live nearby. When the army started buildingthe eight-metre-high concrete wall that bisects thearea, it seized the hotel for "security needs". Butunder the regulations for constructing the barrier,the government would have had to pay more than £1m incompensation. Then the owners were told their hotelhad been confiscated under the absentee property lawwithout recompense.

The government declined to discuss the new applicationof the absentee property law.

Since the signing of the Oslo accords a decade ago,Israel has doubled the size of the Jewish settlements.Many Palestinians suspect that the West Bank barrierwas just another means to grab territory.

"This is state theft," said the mayor of Bethlehem,Hanna Nasser. "They are thieves and they are bluffingeverybody. It's not a security wall, it's the futurefrontier of the state of Israel."

4) ADC Press Release:

ADC Appeals DHS Denial To Release Nationalities of“October Plan”

March 3, 2005, Washington, DC—On November 4, 2004, USImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agencyof the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS),issued a press release entitled “ICE Threat DisputesEffort Results in More than 230 Arrests.” As a result,and due to community concerns, the American-ArabAnti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) requested anationality breakdown of those arrested by ICE. In anearlier statement on September 30, 2004 ICE explainedthat it utilized three databases (namely NSEERS,SEVIS, and US VISIT) to reprioritize leads resultingin the above-referenced arrests.

ADC was, and continues to be, concerned that the Arab,South Asian, and Muslim populations were beingdisproportionately impacted because of the use of theNSEERS database in this enforcement effort termed bythe media as the “October Plan.” On December 14,2004, ADC filed a Freedom of Information Act Request(FOIA) in order to gain access to the nationality ofthose arrested and determine the percentage of Arabs,South Asians, and Muslims who were affected. ADC didnot request the names or individual information of anyof the persons who had been arrested. Furthermore, ADCdid not ask for any informationregarding DHS employees or any law enforcementtechnique, sources, or procedures used by DHSregarding the arrests.

ADC’s intent with the request was to assure theArab-American, South Asian, and Muslim communities,along with the rest of our nation, that ICE was notconducting a “round-up” or “sweep” in any community,and that it was acting consistently with the pledgemade on September 30, 2004 not to partake inracial, national origin or religious profiling.

Unfortunately, ICE and DHS have denied ADC’s requestto release the nationality breakdown of those arrestedduring the “October Plan.” Today, ADC has filed anadministrative appeal with the Privacy Office at DHS.ADC hopes that DHS will review this appeal in a timelymatter and make the correct decision to release thenationality breakdown of the individuals arrestedduring the “October Plan.”

5) This is a letter I wrote to Victoria's Secretregarding their amazing ability to follow me aroundthe country with their catalogues. If you too arebeing stalked by Victoria's Secret, L.L. Bean, orother catalogues, then you'll understand my plight.Use the link below to write your own letter. Ifnothing else, this letter is clearly a sign that Ihave too much time on my hands:

I tried twice to stop having your catalogues sent tomy address last year. Each time I said I did not wantany more catalogues, that I was dissatisfied with theone product I'd purchased from one of your outletstores, and that I am against receiving catalogues inprinciple. Your colleague said that I would receiveno more, but they kept coming. Then, when I moved toanother state, your catalogue followed me!

Recently, I did what a friend suggested -- I wrote"return to sender" on the catalogue and put it back ina mailbox. It's too early to tell, but I'm optimisticthat that will persuade you to get off my back andstop following me around.

Help! How do I cancel my unwanted "subscription"? Ionly bought one thing once! Vickie, get out of mylife -- I'd rather have trees.

Thank you,Nabil Al-Tikriti

6) This posting is demonstrative of the level ofdebate raging in America's blogosphere concerningUS-Muslim relations:

Subject: Quick to Commit

Everyone seems to be wondering why Muslim terroristsare so quick to commit suicide. Let's see now.

No Jesus, No Christmas. No television, Nocheerleaders, No baseball, No football, No hockey, Nogolf, No tailgate parties, No Wal-Mart, No Home Depot,No pork BBQ, No hot dogs, No burgers, No chocolatechip cookies. No lobster, No shellfish, or even frozenfish sticks, No gumbo, No jambalaya.

Rags for clothes and towels for hats.

Constant wailing from the guy next-door because he'ssick and there are no doctors.

Constant wailing from the guy in the tower.

More than one wife.

You can't shave.

Your wives can't shave.

You can't shower to wash off the smell of donkeycooked over burning camel dung.